The 10 best Mercury Prize winners
The Mercury Prize has a mammoth three decades of experience under its belt. The British Phonographic Industry’s official response to the BRIT Awards wound up becoming its own kind of coveted statue. With an eye toward some of the newest and most exciting young acts across Britain and Ireland, the Mercury Prize immediately indicated success and potential longevity in the music industry.
But not every Mercury Prize winner is made equal. Across the 31 years that the award has been given out, some astounding albums have been sidelined in favour of not-so-ground-breaking releases. Should M People’s Elegant Slumming have beaten out Blur’s Parklife in 1994? Was Gomez’s Bring It On really superior to Massive Attack’s Mezzanine in 1998? Were Klaxons justified in taking the prize over Amy Winehouse in 2007?
It’s certainly not a perfect system, but there does remain some admiration among the general public and music snobs alike for the Mercury Prize. That’s probably because, by and large, there haven’t been any major embarrassments over the three decades of the Prize’s existence. While some albums might be more deserving than others, very few records have truly been unworthy.
But which ones are the best? That’s what we’re going to find out today. Here are the ten Mercury Prize selections that have held up marvellously since their initial picks.
The 10 best Mercury Prize winners:
10. Primal Scream – Screamadelica (1992)
It’s nice to know that the Mercury Prize got it right on their first try. At the award’s inaugural ceremony, Scottish indie-dance titans Primal Scream were bestowed the first-ever Mercury Prize for their iconic genre-blending masterpiece Screamadelica.
The decision wound up ageing like a fine wine, especially as the committee opted to honour an upstart act rather than chart titans like U2 or Simply Red.
9. Dave – Pyschodrama (2019)
Finding the stiffest competition year for the Mercury Prize is a fun task to keep yourself busy with. Whatever year you might think was the best, 2019 certainly looks like one of the most stacked lineups. Killer albums from Cate Le Bon, Black Midi, Idles, Fontaines D.C. and Little Simz all competed that year.
Hell, even The 1975 had an outside shot with A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. Slowthai might have taken the headlines with his severed head of Boris Johnson stunt, but it was Dave who was the actual and well-deserved winner in the crowded field.
8. Pulp – Different Class (1996)
Pulp are among the upper echelon of the Mercury Prize’s most beloved honourees. Across a handful of years in the 1990s, three different Pulp albums were nominated for the prize: 1994’s His ‘n’ Hers, and 1998’s This Is Hardcore didn’t manage to take home the award.
But 1996’s Different Class did, and considering how it’s arguably Pulp’s most important album with their most important song, that’s probably the right one to give the Prize to. Needless to say, Different Class still hits hard nearly three decades later.
7. Suede – Suede (1993)
A year after the Mercury Prize was established to directly combat the BRITs, the Prize was almost in danger of permanently riding the latter’s coattails. That’s because Suede caused a major stir with their combative performance of ‘Animal Nitrate’ at the 1993 BRITs, instantly skyrocketing them into pole position as the first Britpop act to break into the mainstream.
The Mercury Prize could have turned their nose up at an act that got big at the BRITs, but instead, they chose to do the right thing and give another major spotlight to Suede.
6. Arlo Parks – Collapsed in Sunbeams (2021)
Call it recency bias; call it what you will. The one indisputable thing is that Arlo Parks was more than deserving of her coronation with 2021’s Collapsed in Sunbeams.
It might be easy to look at the nominees that year and think that Parks was an obvious choice, but that discounts just how worthy the singer-songwriter was of the honour. From the heartbreaking narrative of ‘Black Dog’ to the infectious energy of ‘Too Good’, Parks crafted a true masterwork that still feels fresh and resonant today.
5. Anohni and the Johnsons – I Am A Bird Now (2005)
A devastating portrait of confused identity and suicidal thoughts, I Am A Bird Now probably goes down as the darkest of all the albums to win the Prize. A reflection of the times that showcases the event’s ability to give over the podium to high-art.
There was also a minor fervour over whether Anohni Hegarty should even win the British award since they had been living in the US since the age of ten. All of that criticism falls away the second that you plug into I Am A Bird Now, a true feel-bad triumph that can still lift you up in all the right ways.
4. Portishead – Dummy (1995)
Where would Britain be without trip-hop? The Mercury Prize has fully embraced hip hop, alternative music, and its subsequent sub-genres over the years, but bonus points for really hitting the nail on the head with Portishead‘s debut Dummy. The landscape painted by vocalist Beth Gibbons is murky, often hopeless, but utterly enticing. Her smoky, mesmerising voice, yearning for something greater, encourages the listener to indulge in this seductive misery defined by hazy beats, samples of retro soundtracks, and warm vinyl crackling.
A transcendent listening experience all of 30 years later, Dummy is as dense and immersive as any album in the history of music. So, yeah, good on you, Mercury Prize voters.
3. Dizzee Rascal – Boy in da Corner (2003)
The Mercury Prize was alternative music’s favourite mainstream coronation for most of the 1990s. While drum and bass, trip hop, and rap were given platforms, there really hadn’t been a strong representation of gritty black Britain until Dizzee Rascal took home the prize for his 2003 debut Boy in da Corner. The record was a huge moment for the UK scene, showing that critical acclaim was available for any record that captured a reflection of society with sincere expression.
If this was the first time you had ever heard the term “grime”, then it just shows that the Mercury Prize was strangely ahead of the game that year.
2. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (2011)
The queen of the Mercury Prize got what some considered an easy win in 2000 with the album Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. But when she returned, PJ Harvey returned with a fury with 2011’s Let England Shake. It’s a powerhouse LP that has given extra credence to Harvey gaining the aforementioned crown.
On top of its universal acclaim from across the world of music, Let England Shake also made Harvey the only person to have won the Mercury Prize twice. It was more than well deserved since Let England Shake is still some of the most primal and beautiful music that PJ Harvey has ever put out.
1. Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (2006)
Whether it’s always successful or not, the Mercury Prize has been trying to capture the zeitgeist for its entire existence. Sometimes, those attempts have been shots in the dark, and other times, they have been obvious crowning.
While it might seem like a clear choice now that it’s become one of the most important British albums of all time, Arctic Monkeys‘ Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not was truly the best of the best choices that the Mercury Prize ever made. Defining a generation of listeners, accurately portraying a weekend of frivolity in Britain’s cultural cesspit of 2006.
It was such a perfect choice that the voters have just kept giving the band nominations all these years later.
